George Matheis

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We break vehicle skill sets into two types, high threat driving, and vehicle tactics. High threat driving is everything you do with the vehicle while it is in motion. Vehicle tactics, the focus of this article is everything you do around a stationary vehicle.

The majority of us spend a great amount of time in and around vehicles, but for some reason don’t train enough around them. In the last year between military contracts, and during my own courses I have seen around 500-700 people do the same number of wrong things over, and over again. Let’s take a look at them.

First of all, vehicles, even when up armored, are poor fighting platforms. They are intended to be able to soak up rounds as you drive away from the threat. Which brings us to the first point: Your best option when it comes to vehicle is to use them for their intended purpose and put distance between you and the threat.

At all times, when you are by yourself, or with friends loved ones, you need to be aware of your surroundings, and always looks for holes to drive through if the need arises. Identify drivable terrain, which we define as anything you drive through or over without disabling your vehicle.

The next thing is to keep windows up and doors locked, during force on force scenarios we have to instruct the students to not do one or the other. Because with the windows up, and the doors locked, the chances of an occupant being attacked are slim. Couple this with movement and the chances of something happening in transit are very low.

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Just because you fell doesn’t mean you are out of the fight

Many people are aware of the fact that falls are one of the leading causes of injury and death. As a matter of fact some statistics show that they are the leading cause of death between people 0-14 years old and those over 25. The vast majority of falls are of course accidental, but what about those that occur during interpersonal combat.

The only fear we are born with is the fear of falling. This is known as the Moro Response, those of you who have kids have seen it. An infant is sleeping on their back on a flat surface, a door slams, the infants and legs reflexively jerk in before spreading back out.

We also experience this when we are dozing off and get that falling feeling. It is also what happens when we lose our balance going backwards; our head tries to get back over our feet as our arms flail out to the side in an attempt to regain balance.

Time and time again in all types of training, and more importantly in the street, I see people fall. Ask anyone who is a Judo practitioner or any of the other arts that include throwing and they will tell you how much time is spent learning to fall correctly.

They will also tell you that the younger you start the better it is. There are two reasons for this, the first and most obvious is that when you are younger it just does not hurt as much. The second is that the older we get, the more times we have fallen, and the more panicked our response becomes.

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LOUD NOISES!!!

The first time I ever heard the phrase Interpersonal Communication Skills was 1991, I was a young soldier in Military Police School at Ft McClellan, AL. I wish I could say that I remembered anything about the class, but I don’t. What I do remember is that the title of the block of instruction has stuck with me for 20 yrs. Here is why, there is nothing as basic as communication with other people, but so hard to master.

Fast forward 15 years or so later and I would find myself attending both the FBI Negotiations Course, as well as our local sheriff’s department’s course. I was being trained as a “talker”. During both courses the phone would ring and a student would have to answer it, on the other end would be an instructor acting out a scenario. Whoever answered the phone had to negotiate the scenario to a conclusion. Even though it was just training and you were in no danger; we all got stressed out.

Over the years I have worked on my IPC skills, and shared my skills with officers I’ve trained, or was able to talk to people that others could not. Over the next few years I had the opportunity to negotiate several times with positive outcomes.

Of all the skills everyone should possess, I find this to be one of the most important and easiest to practice. I mean we talk to people every day. You only need to be dedicated to one goal…getting your needs met. Let me explain.

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